Dear Friends and Family,
We're back home!
I missed posting my blogs every morning, but truly enjoyed my morning routine in Korea of spending quality time with my grandfather. I'm going to be using this week's blog to write about the trip - one day at a time. Depending upon how it plays out, I might end up doing my posts at night. We'll see.
On a side note, Mr. mouse is up as well, which is not part of my usual morning routine. And, he's annoyed. The photos I scanned in last week are causing him all sorts of grief now. I'm sorely tempted to say, "I told you so," but I figure I don't want to add to his frustration. And, since that computer has all of our photos, music and stuff on it, it crashing is not a good thing.
What We Saw/Did
In classic mouse family fashion, we decided at the last minute to leave a day early. I was working from home on Friday, so after a mad scramble to finish up my work work, I started the mad scramble to finish up my travel work. We packed in record time; loaded the dishwasher; took out the garbage; checked the windows, doors, stove, oven, and alarm clocks; and bolted out the door to grab a cab to the airport. The plan? Try to catch the London flight to hopefully connect to the Frankfurt flight to hopefully connect to the Seoul flight. Hope is not a strategy. The London flight filled up with a church group who missed their earlier flight due to a delayed flight. Instead, we flew out to LAX for the night to figure out our next best alternative. Making lemonade out of lemons, we got the exit row out and watched Casino Royale on the flight.
We got to the hotel at midnight. Checked in. And, slept for four hours before heading back to the airport. Looking at our options, we decided heading up to Seattle looked like the most likely route. And, if it didn't work out, we've got a ton of friends we could look up for the night before trying again on Sunday. First class to SEA. As Mr. mouse says, feast or famine. We had a three hour layover in Seattle. Then, fortunately, we got on the flight to Tokyo, en route to Seoul.
We got first class to Tokyo which meant true lie flat seats. Wow, that was nice. I watched Dream Girls and then settled in for a nice, warm nap. Life is good. Had a three hour layover in Tokyo which was just enough time to do some duty free shopping and pick up a small snack. Back at the gate, we got on the flight to Seoul. Final leg of our outbound journey. And, first class to boot. Nice!
We landed about 30 minutes ahead of our neighbors (the Dad, the Mom, the Daughter), so we waited for them at their luggage carousel before heading into the main terminal. Once in the main terminal, Mr. mouse and "the Dad" scouted the airport while "the Mom", "the Daughter" and I watched the luggage. Armed with some Korean money (the won), two rental cell phones and our luggage, we headed out to find transportation into the city. Taxis run between 70,000 and 80,000 won (roughly 1,000 won to 1 dollar) to take the five of us from the airport to downtown Seoul. We opted for the bus which costs 8,000 won per person instead. You load the luggage into the luggage compartment under the bus and hop in for the ride. Totally comfortable and affordable.
We got off the bus right by my grandfather's house. We put our neighbors in a cab to go to their hotel and started walking. Unfortunately, neither of us remembered the way to my grandfather's house. We took the train last time and arrived in the daytime. We walked aimlessly for about 45 minutes in the dark with our bag before finding his house. The next day, we realized we walked past his house twice the night before. Nice.
We let ourselves in and started to settle down for the night. I was a little scared because I hadn't seen my grandfather in 5 years and you never know what you're going to find when someone is 96 years old. He got up, shortly after we came in, to use the bathroom, noticed the toilet seat was down and began to look around the house. We got up and had a chance to catch up for a couple of minutes before we all turned in for the night. Fortunately, he seemed to be doing very well. I felt much better than when we first walked into the house.
What We Ate
Friday night, before catching the flight to LAX, we got McDonald's at the airport - chicken McNuggets (1 point per piece) and barbecue sauce (1 point per package) and a side salad (free).
On the flights:
After a week, I think we can find my grandfather's house the next time without getting lost. And, more importantly, at 96 years old, my grandfather is doing amazingly well. He's in good health. He's mobile. He still has his vision and his hearing. And, he's mentally with it.
Cheers!
mouse
We're back home!
I missed posting my blogs every morning, but truly enjoyed my morning routine in Korea of spending quality time with my grandfather. I'm going to be using this week's blog to write about the trip - one day at a time. Depending upon how it plays out, I might end up doing my posts at night. We'll see.
On a side note, Mr. mouse is up as well, which is not part of my usual morning routine. And, he's annoyed. The photos I scanned in last week are causing him all sorts of grief now. I'm sorely tempted to say, "I told you so," but I figure I don't want to add to his frustration. And, since that computer has all of our photos, music and stuff on it, it crashing is not a good thing.
What We Saw/Did
In classic mouse family fashion, we decided at the last minute to leave a day early. I was working from home on Friday, so after a mad scramble to finish up my work work, I started the mad scramble to finish up my travel work. We packed in record time; loaded the dishwasher; took out the garbage; checked the windows, doors, stove, oven, and alarm clocks; and bolted out the door to grab a cab to the airport. The plan? Try to catch the London flight to hopefully connect to the Frankfurt flight to hopefully connect to the Seoul flight. Hope is not a strategy. The London flight filled up with a church group who missed their earlier flight due to a delayed flight. Instead, we flew out to LAX for the night to figure out our next best alternative. Making lemonade out of lemons, we got the exit row out and watched Casino Royale on the flight.
We got to the hotel at midnight. Checked in. And, slept for four hours before heading back to the airport. Looking at our options, we decided heading up to Seattle looked like the most likely route. And, if it didn't work out, we've got a ton of friends we could look up for the night before trying again on Sunday. First class to SEA. As Mr. mouse says, feast or famine. We had a three hour layover in Seattle. Then, fortunately, we got on the flight to Tokyo, en route to Seoul.
We got first class to Tokyo which meant true lie flat seats. Wow, that was nice. I watched Dream Girls and then settled in for a nice, warm nap. Life is good. Had a three hour layover in Tokyo which was just enough time to do some duty free shopping and pick up a small snack. Back at the gate, we got on the flight to Seoul. Final leg of our outbound journey. And, first class to boot. Nice!
We landed about 30 minutes ahead of our neighbors (the Dad, the Mom, the Daughter), so we waited for them at their luggage carousel before heading into the main terminal. Once in the main terminal, Mr. mouse and "the Dad" scouted the airport while "the Mom", "the Daughter" and I watched the luggage. Armed with some Korean money (the won), two rental cell phones and our luggage, we headed out to find transportation into the city. Taxis run between 70,000 and 80,000 won (roughly 1,000 won to 1 dollar) to take the five of us from the airport to downtown Seoul. We opted for the bus which costs 8,000 won per person instead. You load the luggage into the luggage compartment under the bus and hop in for the ride. Totally comfortable and affordable.
We got off the bus right by my grandfather's house. We put our neighbors in a cab to go to their hotel and started walking. Unfortunately, neither of us remembered the way to my grandfather's house. We took the train last time and arrived in the daytime. We walked aimlessly for about 45 minutes in the dark with our bag before finding his house. The next day, we realized we walked past his house twice the night before. Nice.
We let ourselves in and started to settle down for the night. I was a little scared because I hadn't seen my grandfather in 5 years and you never know what you're going to find when someone is 96 years old. He got up, shortly after we came in, to use the bathroom, noticed the toilet seat was down and began to look around the house. We got up and had a chance to catch up for a couple of minutes before we all turned in for the night. Fortunately, he seemed to be doing very well. I felt much better than when we first walked into the house.
What We Ate
Friday night, before catching the flight to LAX, we got McDonald's at the airport - chicken McNuggets (1 point per piece) and barbecue sauce (1 point per package) and a side salad (free).
On the flights:
- to Seattle: fresh fruit, strawberry yogurt, crackers
- at the Seattle airport: pretzels
- to Tokyo: champagne, warm nuts, roll and butter, crab cakes, seafood bisque, salad, Japanese bento box, strawberries, port, hot fudge sundae, roll, fresh fruit, asparagus, breakfast sausage
- at the Tokyo airport: sushi
- to Seoul: champagne, warm nuts, soba noodles, sushi, fresh fruit, chocolate cake
After a week, I think we can find my grandfather's house the next time without getting lost. And, more importantly, at 96 years old, my grandfather is doing amazingly well. He's in good health. He's mobile. He still has his vision and his hearing. And, he's mentally with it.
Cheers!
mouse
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1 comment:
Now I can see why you were able to eat light all week....Champaign, seafood Bisque, crab cakes, etc.......
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